Use of corrugated fiberboard material for coffins or cremation containers is generally known. The advantage of such containers is in their low cost and light weight for transport or shipping and handling purposes versus wood or metal caskets, and, where used as a cremation container, the fiberboard provides a material that is readily burned off. Also, for storage and shipping purposes, it is known to provide for fold lines in the material so as to ship the unassembled containers in a collapsed state and to be able to assemble the container after shipping by folding of the fiberboard material into the desired form. Typically, such foldable containers are also provided with wood framing members to keep them in their folded, assembled form and to enhance their rigidity and thus their strength for supporting the relatively large weights to which they will be subjected. However, the use of wood framing members is undesirable for the weight and assembly reasons described above as the wood frame members weigh more than the fiberboard and cannot be folded. Accordingly, there is a need for a coffin or cremation container formed of fiberboard material which can be folded into its assembled, operative condition without the need for framing members to maintain the container in its folded configuration or for support and load bearing purposes.
In Japan, for example, where Buddhism is practiced and the need for cremation containers is high, there are few trucks available for use in transporting goods, in part due to the high cost of fuel therefor. As such, products that can fit in automobiles, such as in their trunks, facilitate transport thereof and reduce transportation expenses associated therewith. Where the assembled product is too big to be fit in a car trunk, parts for the product should be able to be placed in the trunk in a compact state. In prior foldable fiberboard containers, the transportation of the panels is difficult due to the size of the panels. The panels could be randomly folded along their fold lines provided for forming the final product to fit them into the trunk; however, this solution is unsatisfactory due to the random nature of the folding that would be done and further because it is not clear that such folding would result in a sufficiently compact form of the container panels for fitting in the car trunk. Accordingly, a fiberboard container that can be folded in a predetermined manner so as to fit compactly into a small space in a vehicle for their transport, such as in the trunk space of an automobile, would be desirable.
Another problem in forming these containers is that they need a liner which is substantially leak-proof to minimize the escape of fluid, e.g., body fluids and/or embalming fluids (if used), from the container. It has been proposed to use plastic tray liners in these containers to avoid leakage therefrom. Where the container is to be folded into its final operative form, such leakage can occur at the seams formed along adjacent walls which are folded into abutment with each other. The provision of a liner into such foldable containers can often complicate the assembly thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,484 to Woedl et al. proposes a foldable blank of fiberboard material covered with a flexible liquid impervious fabric liner on one side thereof to minimize assembly problems with the liner. However, Woedl et al. also require the use of wood framing members secured to the blank before it is folded and assembled into its operative form. Fasteners are also needed to assemble the casket of Woedl et al., requiring fastener receiving holes to be aligned before the fasteners are inserted therethrough. The use of fasteners increases the number of parts needed to assemble the Woedl et al. casket and can create difficulties during assembly in properly aligning the holes for insertion of the fasteners therethrough, thus increasing the assembly time. These containers will be typically assembled by undertakers so that it is particularly important that they be easily and quickly assembled in a convenient fashion without requiring any special assembly parts or tools. Thus, there is a need for a leak-free, foldable coffin or cremation container of a fiberboard material which can be quickly assembled in a trouble-free manner and which does not need framing members to keep its shape or for support and rigidity purposes. In addition, it would be desirable to provide a foldable container as described wherein the structure utilized to minimize leakage therefrom was also adapted to support the loads to be taken by the fiberboard of the container.